(Discussion of power of the keys
in true discipline: the ends and processes of discipline, 1-7)

NECESSITY AND NATURE OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE

The discipline of the church, the discussion of which
we have deferred to this place, must be treated briefly, that we may thereafter
pass to the remaining topics. Discipline depends for the most part upon
the power of the keys F397 and upon spiritual
jurisdiction. To understand it better, let us divide the church into two
chief orders: clergy and people. I call by the usual name "clergy"F398
those
who perform the public ministry in the church. We shall first speak of
common discipline, to which all ought to submit; then we shall come to
the clergy, who, besides the common discipline, have their own.F399

But because some persons, in their hatred of discipline,
recoil from its very name, let them understand this: if no society, indeed,
no house which has even a small family, can be kept in proper condition
without discipline, it is much more necessary in the church, whose condition
should be as ordered as possible. Accordingly, as the saving doctrine of
Christ is the soul of the church, so does discipline serve as its sinews,
through which the members of the body hold together, each in its own place.
Therefore, all who desire to remove discipline or to hinder its restoration—whether
they do this deliberately or out of ignorance—are surely contributing to
the ultimate dissolution of the church. For what will happen if each is
allowed to do what he pleases? Yet that would happen, if to the preaching
of doctrine there were not added private admonitions, corrections, and
other aids of the sort that sustain doctrine and do not let it remain idle.
Therefore, discipline is like a bridle to restrain and tame those who rage
against the doctrine of Christ; or like a spur to arouse those of little
inclination; and also sometimes like a father’s rod F400
to
chastise mildly and with the gentleness of Christ’s Spirit those who have
more seriously lapsed. When, therefore, we discern frightful devastation
beginning to threaten the church because there is no concern and no means
of restraining the people, necessity itself cries out that a remedy is
needed. Now, this is the sole remedy that Christ has enjoined and the one
that has always been used among the godly.

STAGES OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE

The first foundation of discipline is to provide a place
for private admonition; that is, if anyone does not perform his duty willingly,
or behaves insolently, or does not live honorably, or has committed any
act deserving blame—he should allow himself to be admonished; and when
the situation demands it, every man should endeavor to admonish his brother.
But let pastors and presbyters be especially watchful to do this, for their
duty is not only to preach to the people, but to warn and exhort in every
house, wherever they are not effective enough in general instruction. Paul
teaches this when he relates that he taught privately and from house to
house [ <442020> Acts 20:20], and declares
himself "innocent of the blood of all" [verse 26], because he "ceased not
to admonish everyone night and day with tears" [
<442031>
Acts 20:31]. For doctrine obtains force and authority where the
minister not only explains to all together what they owe to Christ, but
also has the right and means to require that it be kept by those whom he
has observed are either disrespectful or languid toward his teaching.

If anyone either stubbornly rejects such admonitions or
shows that he scorns them by persisting in his own vices, after having
been admonished a second time in the presence of witnesses, Christ commands
that he be called to the tribunal of the church, that is, the assembly
of the elders,F401 and there be more gravely
admonished as by public authority, in order that, if he reverences the
church, he may submit and obey. If he is not even subdued by this but perseveres
in his wickedness, then Christ commands that, as a despiser of the church,
he be removed from the believers’ fellowship [ <401815>
Matthew
18:15,17].

CONCEALED AND OPEN SINS

But because Christ is here speaking only of secret faults,
we must postulate this division: some sins are private; others, public
or openly manifest.F402 Of the former, Christ
says to every individual: "Reprove him, between you and him alone" [ <401815>
Matthew 18:15]. Paul says to Timothy of open sins: "Rebuke them
in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear" [ <540520>
1
Timothy 5:20]. For Christ had previously said, "If your brother has sinned
against you" [ <401815> Matthew 18:15].
This phrase ["against you"] (unless you wish to be contentious) you cannot
otherwise understand than as "with your knowledge alone, no others being
aware." But what the apostle enjoins upon Timothy concerning reproving
openly those who sin openly, he himself follows in the case of Peter. For
when Peter sinned to the point of public scandal, Paul did not admonish
him privately but brought him into the presence of the church [ <480214>
Galatians 2:14].

This, then, will be the right sequence in which to act:
to proceed in correcting secret sins according to the steps laid down by
Christ; but in open sins, if the offense is indeed public, to proceed at
once to solemn rebuke by the church.

LIGHT AND GRAVE SINS

Here is another distinction: of sins, some are faults;
others, crimes or shameful acts.F403 To correct
these latter ones, we must not only use admonition or rebuke, but a severer
remedy: as Paul shows when he not only chastises the incestuous Corinthian
with words but punishes him with excommunication, as soon as he has been
apprised of the crime [ <460503> 1 Corinthians
5:3 ff.]. Now, therefore, we begin to see better how the spiritual jurisdiction
of the church, which punishes sins according to the Lord’s Word, is the
best support of health, foundation of order, and bond of unity. Therefore,
in excluding from its fellowship manifest adulterers, fornicators, thieves,
robbers, seditious persons, perjurers, false witnesses, and the rest of
this sort, as well as the insolent (who when duly admonished of their lighter
vices mock God and his judgment), the church claims for itself nothing
unreasonable but practices the jurisdiction conferred upon it by the Lord.
Now, that no one may despise such a judgment of the church or regard condemnation
by vote of the believers as a trivial thing, the Lord has testified that
this is nothing but the publication of his own sentence, and what they
have done on earth is ratified in heaven. For they have the Word of the
Lord to condemn the perverse; they have the Word to receive the repentant
into grace [ <401619> Matthew 16:19; 18:18;
<432023> John 20:23]. Those who trust that
without this bond of discipline the church can long stand are, I say, mistaken;
unless, perhaps, we can with impunity go without that aid which the Lord
foresaw would be necessary for us. Truly, the variety of uses of this discipline
will better show how great the need of it is!

THE PURPOSE OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE

In such corrections and excommunication, the church has
three ends in view. The first is that they who lead a filthy and infamous
life may not be called Christians, to the dishonor of God, as if his holy
church [cf. <490525> Ephesians 5:25-26]
were a conspiracy of wicked and abandoned men. For since the church itself
is the body of Christ [ <510124> Colossians
1:24], it cannot be corrupted by such foul and decaying members without
some disgrace falling upon its Head. Therefore, that there may be no such
thing in the church to brand its most sacred name with disgrace, they from
whose wickedness infamy redounds to the Christian name must be banished
from its family. And here also we must preserve the order of the Lord’s
Supper, that it may not be profaned by being administered indiscriminately.F404
For
it is very true that he to whom its distribution has been committed, if
he knowingly and willingly admits an unworthy person whom he could rightfully
turn away, is as guilty of sacrilege as if he had cast the Lord’s body
to dogs. On this account, Chrysostom gravely inveighs against priests who,
fearing the power of great men, dare exclude no one. "Blood," he says,
"will be required at your hands. [ <260318>
Ezekiel
3:18; 33:8.] If you fear a man, he will laugh at you; but if you fear God,
you will be revered also among men. Let us not dread the fasces, the purple,
the crowns; here we have a greater power. I truly would rather give my
body to death, and let my blood be poured out, than participate in that
pollution."F405 Therefore, lest this most
hallowed mystery be disgraced, discretion is very much needed in its distribution.
Yet this can be had only through the jurisdiction of the church.

The second purpose is that the good be not corrupted by
the constant company of the wicked, as commonly happens. For (such is our
tendency to wander from the way) there is nothing easier than for us to
be led away by bad examples from right living. The apostle noted this tendency
when he bade the Corinthians expel the incestuous man from their company.
"A little leaven," he says, "ferments the whole lump." [ <460506>
1 Corinthians 5:6.] And he foresaw such great danger here that he
prohibited all association with him. "If any brother," he says, "bears
among you the name of fornicator, miser, worshiper of idols, drunkard,
or reviler, I do not allow you even to take food with such a man." [ <460511>
1
Corinthians 5:11 p.]

The third purpose is that those overcome by shame for
their baseness begin to repent. They who under gentler treatment would
have become more stubborn so profit by the chastisement of their own evil
as to be awakened when they feel the rod. The apostle means this when he
speaks as follows: "If anyone does not obey our teaching, note that man;
and do not mingle with him, that he may be ashamed" [ <530314>
2
Thessalonians 3:14 p.]. Likewise, in another passage, when he writes that
he has delivered the Corinthian man to Satan: "that his spirit may be saved
in the Day of the Lord" [ <460505>
1 Corinthians
5:5]; that is (as I interpret it), Paul gave him over to temporary condemnation
that he might have eternal salvation. But he speaks of "delivering over
to Satan" because the devil is outside the church, as Christ is in the
church.F406 Some authorities refer this phrase
to a certain vexing of the flesh,F407
but
this seems very doubtful to me.

6. THE HANDLING OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE IN THE VARIOUS CASES

With these purposes enumerated, it remains for us to see
how the church carries out this part of discipline which falls within its
jurisdiction. To begin with, let us keep the division set forth above:
that some sins are public; others, private or somewhat secret.F408
Public
sins are those witnessed not by one or two persons, but committed openly
and to the offense of the entire church. I call secret sins, not those
completely hidden from men, as are those of hypocrites (for these do not
fall under the judgment of the church), but those of an intermediate sort,
which are not unwitnessed, yet not public.

The first kind does not require the steps which Christ
lists [ <401815> Matthew 18:15-17]; but
when any such sin appears, the church ought to do its duty in summoning
the sinner and correcting him according to his fault.

In the second kind, according to that rule of Christ,
the case does not come before the church until the sinner becomes obstinate.
When it has come before the church, then the other division between crimes
and faults is to be observed. For such great severity is not to be used
in lighter sins, but verbal chastisement is enough—and that mild and fatherly—which
should not harden or confuse the sinner, but bring him back to himself,
that he may rejoice rather than be sad that he has been corrected. But
shameful acts need to be chastised with a harsher remedy. Nor is it enough
if he, who by setting a bad example through his misdeed has gravely injured
the church, be chastised only with words; but he ought for a time to be
deprived of the communion of the Supper until he gives assurance of his
repentance. For Paul not only rebuked the Corinthian in words but banished
him from the church, and chided the Corinthians for bearing with him so
long [ <460501> 1 Corinthians 5:1-7].

The ancient and better church kept this procedure while
lawful government flourished. For if anyone had committed a crime that
caused offense, he was ordered first to abstain from partaking of the Sacred
Supper, then to humble himself before God and witness his repentance before
the church. There were, moreover, solemn rites customarily enjoined as
marks of repentance upon those who had lapsed. When these had been performed
to the satisfaction of the church, the penitent was received into grace
with laying on of hands, a reception that Cyprian often calls "peace."
He also briefly describes such a rite. "They do penance," he says, "for
a set period; then they come to public confession and through the laying
on of hands of bishop and clergy receive the right to communion." Although
the bishop with his clergy possessed a power of reconciliation, it required
at the same time the consent of the people, as Cyprian elsewhere shows.F409

7.IN THE ANCIENT CHURCH, DISCIPLINE APPLIED TO ALL OFFENDERS
ALIKE

As no one was exempt from this discipline, both princes
and common people submitted to it. And rightly! For it was established
by Christ, to whom it is fitting that all royal scepters and crowns submit.
Thus Theodosius, when he was deprived of the right of communion by Ambrose
because of the slaughter committed at Thessalonica,F410
threw
down all his royal trappings; in church he publicly wept over his sin,
which had overtaken him through others’ deceit, and begged pardon with
groaning and tears. For great kings ought not to count it any dishonor
to prostrate themselves as suppliants before Christ, the King of Kings;
nor ought they to be displeased that they are judged by the church. For
inasmuch as they hear almost nothing but mere flatteries in their courts,
it is all the more necessary for them to be rebuked by the Lord through
the mouth of priests. Rather, they ought to desire not to be spared by
the priests, that God may spare them.

In this place I say nothing about those persons through
whom this jurisdiction is to be exercised; for I have discussed this elsewhere.F411
I
add only this: Paul’s course of action for excommunicating a man is the
lawful one, provided the elders do not do it by themselves alone, but with
the knowledge and approval of the church; in this way the multitude of
the people does not decide the action but observes as witness and guardian
so that nothing may be done according to the whim of a few. Indeed, the
whole sequence of the action, besides the calling on God’s name, ought
to have that gravity which bespeaks the presence of Christ in order that
there may be no doubt that he himself presides at his own tribunal.

(Moderation in discipline enjoined,
and rigorists confuted, 8-13)

8. SEVERITY AND MILDNESS IN CHURCH DISCIPLINE

But we ought not to pass over the fact that such severity
as is joined with a "spirit of gentleness" [ <480601>
Galatians
6:1] befits the church. For we must always, as Paul bids us, take particular
care that he who is punished be not overwhelmed with sorrow [ <470207>
2 Corinthians 2:7]. Thus a remedy would become destruction. But,
from the purpose intended it would be better to take a rule of moderation.
For, in excommunication the intent is to lead the sinner to repentance
and to remove bad examples from the midst, lest either Christ’s name be
maligned or others be provoked to imitate them. If, then, we look to these
things, it will be easy for us to judge how far severity ought to go and
where it ought to stop. Therefore, when a sinner gives testimony of his
repentance to the church, and by this testimony wipes out the offense as
far as he can, he is not to be urged any further. If he is so urged, the
rigor will now exceed due measure. In this respect we cannot at all excuse
the excessive severity of the ancients, which both completely departed
from the Lord’s injunction and was also terribly dangerous. For when they
imposed solemn penance and deprivation from Holy Communion sometimes for
seven, sometimes for four, sometimes for three, years, and sometimes for
life,F412 what could be the result but either
great hypocrisy or utter despair? Likewise, it was not profitable or consonant
with reason that one who had fallen again should not be admitted to a second
repentance, but should be cast out of the church to the end of his life.F413
Whoever will weigh the matter with sound judgment will recognize
their lack of prudence in this.

However, I rather disapprove the public custom here than
accuse all those who have used it, of whom it is certain that some disliked
the practice but put up with it because they could not correct it. In truth,
Cyprian declares how it was not by his own will that he was so rigorous.
"Our patience," he says, "and gentleness and humaneness are ready for all
comers. I desire that all return to the church; I long that all our fellow
soldiers be gathered within Christ’s camp and God the Father’s abode.

I forgive all things; I overlook much; in ardent zeal
to bring the brotherhood together, I do not judicially examine in detail
the faults committed against God. In pardoning faults more than I ought
I am myself almost at fault. I embrace with prompt and full affection those
returning in repentance, confessing their sin in making humble and simple
satisfaction."F414 Chrysostom is somewhat
harder, yet he speaks as follows: "If God is so kind, why does his priest
wish to seem so rigorous?"F415 We know, moreover,
what gentleness Augustine used toward the Donatists. He did not hesitate
to take back to their bishoprics those who had returned from schism, and
that immediately after repentance!F416
But
because a contrary practice had come to prevail, they were compelled to
yield their own judgment, and to follow it.

9. THE LIMITS OF OUR JUDGMENT ACCORDING TO CHURCH DISCIPLINE

This gentleness is required in the whole body of the church,
that it should deal mildly with the lapsed and should not punish with extreme
rigor, but rather, according to Paul’s injunction, confirm its love toward
them [ <470208> 2 Corinthians 2:8]. Similarly,
each layman ought to temper himself to this mildness and gentleness. It
is, therefore, not our task to erase from the number of the elect those
who have been expelled from the church, or to despair as if they were already
lost. It is lawful to regard them as estranged from the church, and thus,
from Christ—but only for such time as they remain separated. However, if
they also display more stubbornness than gentleness, we should still commend
them to the Lord’s judgment, hoping for better things of them in the future
than we see in the present. Nor should we on this account cease to call
upon God in their behalf. And (to put it in one word) let us not condemn
to death the very person who is in the hand and judgment of God alone;
rather, let us only judge of the character of each man’s works by the law
of the Lord. While we follow this rule, we rather take our stand upon the
divine judgment than put forward our own. Let us not claim for ourselves
more license in judgment, unless we wish to limit God’s power and confine
his mercy by law. For God, whenever it pleases him, changes the worst men
into the best, engrafts the alien, and adopts the stranger into the church.
And the Lord does this to frustrate men’s opinion and restrain their rashness—
which, unless it is checked, ventures to assume for itself a greater right
of judgment than it deserves.

10. EXCOMMUNICATION IS CORRECTIVE

For when Christ promises that what his people "bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven" [ <401818>
Matthew
18:18], he limits the force of binding to ecclesiastical censure. By this
those who are excommunicated are not cast into everlasting ruin and damnation,
but in hearing that their life and morals are condemned, they are assured
of their everlasting condemnation unless they repent. Excommunication differs
from anathema in that the latter, taking away all pardon, condemns and
consigns a man to eternal destruction; the former, rather, avenges and
chastens his moral conduct. And although excommunication also punishes
the man, it does so in such a way that, by forewarning him of his future
condemnation, it may call him back to salvation. But if that be obtained,
reconciliation and restoration to communion await him. Moreover, anathema
is very rarely or never used. Accordingly, though ecclesiastical discipline
does not permit us to live familiarly or have intimate contact with excommunicated
persons, we ought nevertheless to strive by whatever means we can in order
that they may turn to a more virtuous life and may return to the society
and unity of the church. So the apostle also teaches: "Do not look upon
them as enemies, but warn them as brothers" [ <530315>
2 Thessalonians 3:15]. Unless this gentleness is maintained in both
private and public censures, there is danger lest we soon slide down from
discipline to butchery.

11. AGAINST WILLFUL EXCESS IN DEMANDING CHURCH DISCIPLINE

This is also a prime requisite for the moderation of discipline,
as Augustine argues against the Donatists: that individual lay-men, if
they see vices not diligently enough corrected by the council of elders,
should not therefore at once depart from the church; and that the pastors
themselves, if they cannot cleanse all that needs correction according
to their hearts’ desire, should not for that reason resign their ministry
or disturb the entire church with unaccustomed rigor. For what Augustine
writes is very true: "Whoever either corrects what he can by reproof, or
excludes, without breaking the bond of peace, what he cannot correct—disapproving
with fairness, bearing with firmness—this man is free and loosed from the
curse." In another passage he gives the reason: "All pious method and measure
of ecclesiastical discipline ought ever to look to ‘the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace’ [ <490403>
Ephesians
4:3], which the apostle orders us to keep by ‘forbearing one another’ [
<490402> Ephesians 4:2], and when it is
not kept, the medicine of punishment begins to be not only superfluous
but also harmful, and so ceases to be medicine." "He who diligently ponders
these things," Augustine says, "neither neglects severe discipline in the
maintenance of unity, nor by intemperate correction breaks the bond of
fellowship." He indeed admits that not only ought pastors to exert themselves
to the end that no fault may remain in the church, but that every man ought
to strive to the same end according to his strength. And Augustine does
not hide the fact that he who neglects to warn, reprove, and correct evil
men, even though he does not favor them or sin with them, is guilty before
the Lord. But if he plays such a part that he is able to cut the evil men
off from partaking of the sacraments, and does not do so, he sins not in
another’s misdeed, but in his own. Only, Augustine would have that prudence
used which the Lord also requires "lest, when the tares are being uprooted,
the grain be harmed" [ <401329>
Matthew
13:29]. From this point he concludes with Cyprian: "Let a man mercifully
correct what he can; let him patiently bear what he cannot correct, and
groan and sorrow over it with love."F417

12. DISRUPTIVE SEVERITY: DONATISTS AND ANABAPTISTS

But Augustine says this because of the overscrupulousness
of the Donatists, who, when they observed faults in the church which the
bishops reproved in words but did not punish with excommunication (because
they thought they could gain nothing in this way), inveighed fiercely against
the bishops as betrayers of discipline and in an impious schism separated
themselves from Christ’s flock. The Anabaptists act in the same way today.
While they recognize no assembly of Christ to exist except one conspicuous
in every respect for its angelic perfection,F418
under
the pretense of their zeal they subvert whatever edification there is.
"Such persons," says Augustine, "not out of hatred of other men’s wickedness
but out of fondness for their own contentions, ensnaring the weak folk
by boasting of their own name, strive either to draw them all to their
side or at least to divide them. Puffed up in their pride, mad in their
stubbornness, deceitful in their slanders, and turbulent in their seditions,
they draw the shade of a rigid severity to hide their lack of the light
of truth. Those things which Scripture enjoins to be done to correct the
vices of the brethren with a modest remedy while sincere love is kept and
unity of peace preserved, they seize upon and turn to the sacrilege of
schism and the occasion of cutting off." Thus, "Satan transforms himself
into an angel of light" [ <471114>
2 Corinthians
11:14, cf. Vg.] when, on occasion of just severity, he prompts men to merciless
cruelty, seeking only to corrupt and break the bond of peace and unity.
While this bond remains firm among Christians, all his powers are powerless
to do harm, the mousetraps of his treachery are weakened, and his schemes
of subversions vanish away.F419

13. AUGUSTINE REQUIRES DISCRIMINATION IN DISCIPLINE

Augustine especially commends this one thing: if the contagion
of sin invades the multitude, the severe mercy of a vigorous discipline
is necessary. "For advice to separate," he says, "is vain, harmful, and
sacrilegious, because it becomes impious and proud; and it disturbs weak
good men more than it corrects bold bad ones."F420
And
what he there enjoins on others, he himself has faithfully followed. For,
writing to Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, he complains that drunkenness
(so severely condemned in Scripture) is raging unpunished in Africa, and
he advises calling a council of bishops to provide a remedy. He then adds:
"These things, in my judgment, are removed not roughly or harshly, or in
any imperious manner; and more by teaching than by commanding, more by
monishing than by menacing. For so we must deal with a great number of
sinners. But we are to use severity toward the sins of a few."F421
Yet
he does not mean that bishops should on this account condone public crimes,
or remain silent because they cannot punish them more severely, as he explains
afterward. But he wishes the method of correction to be so tempered that,
as far as possible, it may bring health rather than death to the body.
Therefore, he concludes as follows: "That precept of the apostle on the
separation of evil persons must accordingly by no means be neglected when
it can be applied without danger of violating peace. For he did not wish
it to be done otherwise. And this principle must also be kept: bearing
with one another, we should try to keep ‘the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace’ [ <460503>
1 Corinthians
5:3-7; <490402> Ephesians 4:2- 3]?’ F422

(The use and purpose of lasting,
private and public: principles to be guarded in it, 14-18)

14. PUBLIC AND MUTUAL PRACTICE OF PENANCE

The remaining part of discipline, which is not properly
contained within the power of the keys, is where the pastors, according
to the need of the times, should exhort the people either to fasting or
to solemn supplications, or to other acts of humility, repentance, and
faith—of which the time, the manner, and the form are not prescribed by
God’s Word, but left to the judgment of the church. Also, the observance
of this part, as it is useful, was always customary in the early church,
even from the days of the apostles themselves. However, even the apostles
were not the first authors, but took their example from the Law and the
Prophets. For we see there that whenever anything grave occurred, the people
were called together, and supplications and a fast appointed [ <290215>
Joel
2:15; <441302> Acts 13:2-3]. The apostles,
therefore, followed what was not new to the people of God, and what they
foresaw would be useful to them. The explanation of other exercises is
similar; by them the people can either be aroused to duty or kept within
duty and obedience. There are examples scattered through the sacred histories,
which there is no need to collect. To sum them up: whenever a controversy
over religion arises which ought to be settled by either a synod or an
ecclesiastical court, whenever there is a question about choosing a minister,
whenever, finally, any difficult matter of great importance is to be discussed,
or again when there appear the judgments of the Lord’s anger (as pestilence,
war, and famine)—this is a holy ordinance and one salutary for all ages,
that pastors urge the people to public fasting and extraordinary prayers.
If anyone declines to accept the testimonies which can be cited from the
Old Testament, as if inappropriate to the Christian church, the fact remains
that the apostles also followed the same practice. Concerning prayers,
however, I think scarcely anyone will be found who would raise a question.
Let us, therefore, say something about fasting, since very many, while
they do not understand how useful it is, regard it as not very necessary;
others also, considering it superfluous, completely reject it.F423
And, since its use is not well understood, it can easily lapse into
superstition.

15. THE PURPOSE OF FASTING

Holy and lawful fasting has three objectives. We use it
either to weaken and subdue the flesh that it may not act wantonly, or
that we may be better prepared for prayers and holy meditations, or that
it may be a testimony of our self-abasement before God when we wish to
confess our guilt before him.

The first objective does not generally have a place in
public fasting, because all bodies do not have the same constitution, or
the same state of health; therefore, it is more appropriate to private
fasting. The second is common to both. For both the whole church and every
individual believer have need of such preparation for prayers. The third
is common likewise. For it sometimes will happen that God will strike a
nation with war, or pestilence, or some calamity. Under this common scourge,
the whole people ought to accuse themselves and confess their guilt. But
if the hand of the Lord should strike any individual, he ought to do this
alone or with his family. The matter lies primarily in the motive of the
heart. But when the heart is affected as it ought to be, it can hardly
help breaking into outward testimony. And this especially happens if it
tends to common edification, so that all together, by confessing their
sin openly, render praise to the God of righteousness, and urge one another,
each by his example.

16. FASTING AND PRAYER

Accordingly, fasting, as it is a sign of self-abasement,
has more frequent use in public than among private individuals even though,
as has been said,F424 it is common to both.
In so far, therefore, as it concerns the discipline which we are now discussing,
whenever men are to pray to God concerning any great matter, it would be
expedient to appoint fasting along with prayer. Thus, when the Antiochenes
placed their hands upon Paul and Barnabas, the better to commend their
ministry to God, a ministry of great importance, they joined fasting to
prayer [ <441303> Acts 13:3]. Thus, both
of these afterward, when they appointed ministers to churches, were accustomed
to pray with fasting [ <441423>
Acts 14:23].
Their sole purpose in this kind of fasting is to render themselves more
eager and unencumbered for prayer. Surely we experience this: with a full
stomach our mind is not so lifted up to God that it can be drawn to prayer
with a serious and ardent affection and persevere in it. So are we to understand
what Luke relates concerning Anna, that she has served the Lord in fasting
and prayers [ <420237>
Luke 2:37]. For
Luke does not set the worship of God in fasting; but he means that the
holy woman has in this way trained herself to sustained prayer. Such was
Nehemiah’s fast when, with earnest zeal, he prayed God for the liberation
of his people [ <160104>
Nehemiah 1:4].
For this reason, Paul says that believers act rightly if they abstain for
a time from the marriage bed, that they may be left freer for prayer and
fasting. There he joins fasting with prayer as an aid to it, and warns
that it is of no importance of itself except as it is applied to this end
[ <460705> 1 Corinthians 7:5]. Then, when
in the same passage he instructs married couples to give one another mutual
consideration [ <460703>
1 Corinthians
7:3], it is clear that he is not speaking of daily prayers, but of something
demanding more serious attention.

17. FASTING AND THE PRACTICE OF PENANCE

Again, if either pestilence, or famine, or war begins
to rage, or if any disaster seems to threaten any district and people—then
also it is the duty of the pastors to urge the church to fasting, in order
that by supplication the Lord’s wrath may be averted. For where he causes
danger to appear he warns that he is ready and, so to speak, armed for
vengeance. Therefore, as in ancient times the accused were accustomed to
abase themselves as suppliants with long beard, unkempt hair, and dark
clothing, in order to appeal to the mercy of the judge—so, when we stand
before God’s judgment seat, it redounds to his glory and to edification
of the people, and is also profitable and salutary for us in humble garb
to pray that his severity be averted. And it can be readily inferred from
the words of Joel that this was the custom among the Israelites. For when
he orders a trumpet to be sounded, an assembly to be called, fasting to
be appointed, and the things that follow [ <290215>
Joel
2:15-16], he is speaking of matters received as common custom. A little
before, he had said that the trial of the people’s shameful acts was set,
and announced that a day of judgment was now at hand, and had summoned
the accused to plead their cause [cf. <290201>
Joel
2:1]; then he cries out for them to hasten to sackcloth and ashes, to weeping
and fasting [ <290212> Joel 2:12], that
is, to prostrate themselves before the Lord also with outward testimonies.
Indeed, sackcloth and ashes were perhaps more appropriate to those times;
but there is no doubt that meeting and weeping and fasting, and like activities,
apply equally to our age F425
whenever the
condition of our affairs so demands. For since this is a holy exercise
both for the humbling of men and for their confession of humility, why
should we use it less than the ancients did in similar need? We read that
not only the Israelite church, formed and established on the Word of God
[ <090706> 1 Samuel 7:6; 31:13; <100112>
2 Samuel 1:12], but also the Ninevites, who had no teaching but
the preaching of Jonah [ <320305> Jonah
3:5], fasted in token of sorrow. What reason is there why we should not
do the same?

But, you object, this is an external ceremony which, together
with others, ended in Christ. No, it is an excellent aid for believers
today (as it always was) and a profitable admonition to arouse them in
order that they may not provoke God more and more by their excessive confidence
and negligence, when they are chastised by his lashes. Accordingly, Christ,
when he excuses his apostles for not fasting, does not say that fasting
is abolished, but appoints it for times of calamity and joins it with mourning.
"The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them." [ <400915>
Matthew 9:15; <420534>
Luke 5:34-35.]F426

18. THE NATURE OF FASTING

But to avoid any error in the term, let us define what
fasting is. For here we do not understand it simply as restraint and abstemiousness
in food, but as something else. Throughout its course, the life of the
godly indeed ought to be tempered with frugality and sobriety, so that
as far as possible it bears some resemblance to a fast. But, in addition,
there is another sort of fasting, temporary in character, when we withdraw
something from the normal regimen of living, either for one day or for
a definite time, and pledge ourselves to a tighter and more severe restraint
in diet than ordinarily. This consists in three things: in time, in quality
of foods, and in smallness of quantity. By time, I mean that we should
carry out those acts of fasting for the sake of which that fast is appointed.
As, for example, if a man fasts for the sake of solemn prayer, he should
come to it without breaking his fast. Quality consists in that all elegance
should be absent, and that, content with common and baser foods, we should
not whet our palate with delicacies. The rule of quantity in this is that
we should eat more sparingly and lightly than is our custom; only for need,
not also for pleasure.

(Danger of superstition, notions
of merit, and hypocrisy in fasting and the observance of Lent, 19-21)

19. MISCONCEPTIONS OF FASTING

But we must always take especial precaution lest any superstition
creep in, as has previously happened to the great harm of the church. For
it would be much more satisfactory if fasting were not practiced at all,
than diligently observed and at the same time corrupted with false and
pernicious opinions, into which the world repeatedly falls, unless the
pastors meet it with the highest faithfulness and prudence. The first point
is that they should always urge what Joel teaches, that they are to "rend
their hearts, not their garments" [ <290213>
Joel
2:13]; that is, they should admonish the people that God does not greatly
esteem fasting of itself, unless an inner emotion of the heart is present,
and true displeasure at one’s sin, true humility, and true sorrowing arising
from the fear of God. Indeed, fasting is not otherwise useful than when
it is joined as a lesser help to these. For God abominates nothing more
than when men try to disguise themselves by displaying signs and outward
appearances in place of innocence of heart. Therefore, Isaiah very severely
inveighs against the Jews’ hypocrisy in thinking they were satisfying God
when they had only fasted, whatever impiety and impure thoughts they harbored
in their hearts. "Is this the fast that the Lord has chosen?" [ <235805>
Isaiah 58:5-6, conflated], and what follows. Hypocritical fasting,
then, is not only a useless and superfluous weariness but the greatest
abomination.

Another evil akin to this, and to be utterly avoided,
is to regard fasting as a work of merit or a form of divine worship. For
since fasting is in itself a thing indifferent, and should have no importance
except for the sake of those ends to which it ought to be directed, a most
dangerous superstition is involved in confusing it with works commanded
by God and necessary of themselves without any other consideration. Such
was the delusion of the Manichees of old. Augustine, in refuting them,
teaches clearly enough that fasting is to be judged solely by those ends
which I have mentioned, and that it is approved by God only if it has reference
to this.F427 There is a third error, not indeed
so impious, but still dangerous: to require it to be kept too strictly
and rigidly as if it were one of the chief duties, and to extol it with
such immoderate praises that men think they have done something noble when
they have fasted. In this respect, I dare not wholly absolve the ancient
writers from having sown certain seeds of superstition and having furnished
the occasion of the tyranny which afterward arose. In them one sometimes
comes across sane and wise statements about fasting, but later one repeatedly
meets immoderate praises of fasting, which set it up among the chief virtues.

20. DEGENERATION OF FASTING IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

At that time the superstitious observance of Lent had
prevailed everywhere, because the common people thought that in it they
were doing some exceptional service to God, and the pastors commended it
as a holy imitation of Christ.F428 On the
contrary, it is plain that Christ did not fast to set an example for others,
but to prove, in so beginning to proclaim the gospel, that it was no human
doctrine but actually one sent from heaven [ <400402>
Matthew
4:2]. And the marvel is that such sheer hallucination (which is refuted
so often and with such clear arguments) could creep upon men of keen judgment.
For Christ does not fast often— as he would have to do if he had willed
to lay down a law of yearly fasting—but only once, when he girded himself
for the proclamation of the gospel. Nor does he fast in human fashion,
as would have been fitting if he willed to arouse men to imitate him; but
he shows an example rather to transport all men to admiration of him than
to arouse them with zeal to imitate him. Finally, his reason for fasting
was not different from that which Moses performed when he received the
law at the Lord’s hand [ <022418>
Exodus
24:18; 34:28]. For since that miracle was manifested in Moses to establish
the authority of the law, it ought not to have been omitted in Christ,
lest the gospel seem to yield to the law. But since that time it never
entered any man’s mind, on the excuse of following Moses, to establish
such a form of fasting among the people of Israel. And none of the holy
prophets and patriarchs followed it, even when they had enthusiasm and
zeal enough for all pious exercises. For the statement that Elijah went
forty days without food and drink [ <111908>
1
Kings 19:8] only served to apprise the people that he had been raised up
to restore the law, from which almost all Israel had departed. It was,
therefore, mere wrongheaded zeal,F429 full
of superstition, that they justified and painted fasting as the following
of Christ.

However, there was amazing diversity in the manner of
fasting, as Cassiodorus relates from the ninth book of Socrates’ history.
For the Romans (he says) had only three weeks, but for them the fast was
continuous, except on Sunday and Saturday. The Illyrians and Greeks had
six; others, seven; but fasting was at intervals. They differed as much
in choice of foods: some ate only bread and water; others added vegetables;
still others did not abstain from fish and fowl; others made no distinction
in foods.F430 Augustine also mentions this
difference in his second letter to Januarius.F431

21. DEPRAVED INDULGENCE IN SEASONS OF LASTING

Worse times then followed, and to the misdirected zeal
of the people was added the incompetence and lack of training of the bishops,
as well as their lust for mastery and their tyrannical rigor. Wicked laws
were passed which bind consciences with deadly chains. The eating of meat
was forbidden, as if it would defile a man. Sacrilegious opinions were
piled upon one another, until the depth of all errors was reached. And
not to overlook any depravity, they began, with a completely absurd pretense
of abstinence, to mock God. For the praise of fasting is sought in the
most exquisite delicacies; then no dainties are enough; at no other time
is there greater abundance or variety or sweetness of foods. They think
that they are duly serving God in such and so elegant trappings. I forbear
to mention that they who wish to be esteemed the most holy of men never
glut themselves more foully. To sum up: for them the highest worship of
God is to abstain from meats, and in their place to abound in all sorts
of delicacies. On the other hand, the ultimate impiety, scarcely to be
expiated by death, is for anyone to taste the slightest bit of bacon fat
or rancid meat with dark bread. Jerome tells us that in his day there were
certain men who mocked God with such follies. To avoid eating oil, they
arranged for the most delicate foods to be brought to them from everywhere;
indeed, to do violence to nature, they abstained from drinking water, but
had sweet and costly draughts prepared for them, which they drank not from
a cup but from a shell.F432 What was then
a vice among the few is today common among all the wealthy, so that they
fast for no other purpose than to feast more sumptuously and daintily.
But I do not want to waste many words in a matter so obvious. I say only
this, that both in fasts and in all other parts of discipline the papists
have nothing right, nothing sincere, nothing well-ordered and arranged,
to give them occasion to boast, as if anything remained among them deserving
of praise.

(Requirement of clerical celibacy
a harmful innovation, 22-28)

22. THE DISCIPLINE OF THE CLERGY AND ITS DEGENERATION

There follows the second part of discipline, which applies
particularly to the clergy. It is contained in the canons that the ancient
bishops imposed upon themselves and their order. Such are these: no cleric
should devote himself to hunting, gambling, or reveling. No cleric should
practice usury or commerce; no cleric should be present at wanton dances—and
there are others of this sort. Penalties were also added to sanction the
authority of the canons so that none might violate them with impunity.
For this purpose the government of his own clergy was committed to each
bishop, that he should rule them according to the canons and keep them
to their duty. For this purpose annual visitations and synods were established
to admonish anyone negligent in office and, if anyone sinned, to punish
him according to his offense. The bishops themselves also had yearly provincial
synods—in the early period twice yearly—by which they were judged as to
whether they had acted at variance from their duty.F433
For
if any bishop was too harsh or violent toward his clergy, the latter could
appeal to a synod, even though only one cleric complained. The severest
punishment was that the one who had sinned should be deposed from office
and deprived of communion for a time. Because this was a permanent system,
they used never to dismiss one synod without setting the place and time
of the next.F434 For the convening of a universal
council belonged to the emperor alone, as all the ancient summonses attest.F435
So long as this severity was in force, the clergy expected from
the people no more by word than they themselves showed by example and act.
Nay, they were much stricter with themselves than with the people. And
it is truly fitting that the common people be ruled, so to speak, by a
gentler and laxer discipline; that the clergy practice harsher censures
among themselves and be far less indulgent toward themselves than toward
others.

There is no need to relate how all this has fallen into
disuse, since today nothing more unbridled and dissolute than this order
can be imagined, and they have broken into such license that the whole
world cries out. I admit that, lest all antiquity should with them seem
utterly buried, they deceive the eyes of the simple with certain shadows,
but these come no nearer to the ancient customs than the ape’s mimicry
to that which men do by reason and planning. There is a memorable passage
in Xenophon where he tells how foully the Persians had degenerated from
the ordinances of their forebears and had lapsed from a strict manner of
living to effeminacy and luxury, but to cover that disgrace, attentively
kept the former rites. For while in the time of Cyrus sobriety and temperance
still flourished, so that there was no need to wipe one’s nose, and it
was even thought a disgrace, among their descendants it remained a religious
custom that no one should blow mucus out of his nostrils, but was permitted
to suck it up and feed within (to the point of putrefaction) the noisome
humors which had been contracted through gluttony. Thus, according to the
ancient precept, it was unlawful to bring drinking bowls to the table;
but later merely to swill so that men needed to be carried away drunk was
tolerable. There was an ordinance to eat but once a day. These good successors
did not set this aside, but were accustomed to continue their drunken revels
from noon to midnight. It was a long-established custom among the Persians,
enjoined by law, that men should complete a day’s journey without eating;
but to avoid weariness, it became the permitted and usual practice to shorten
the journey to two hours.F436 Whenever the
papists trot out their degenerate rules to show their relationship to the
holy fathers, this example will sufficiently reprove their ridiculous imitation,
so that no painter could express it more vividly.

23. PRIESTLY CELIBACY AND ITS CONTRADICTION OF SCRIPTURE

In one thing they are extremely rigid and inexorable—in
not permitting marriage to priests.F437 But
it is needless to speak of the extent to which fornication prevails among
them unpunished; and how, relying upon their foul celibacy, they have become
callous to all crimes. Yet this prohibition clearly shows what a plague
all their traditions are. For it has not only deprived the church of good
and fit pastors, but has also brought in a sink of iniquities and has cast
many souls into the abyss of despair. Surely the forbidding of marriage
to priests came about by an impious tyranny not only against God’s Word
but also against all equity. First, to forbid what the Lord left free was
by no means lawful to men. Again, that the Lord expressly took care by
his Word that this freedom should not be infringed upon is too clear to
require a long proof. I pass over the fact that Paul in many passages wishes
a bishop to be a man of one wife [ <540302>
1
Timothy 3:2; <560106> Titus 1:6]. But what
could be more forcefully said than when he declares by the Holy Spirit
that in the Last Days there will be impious men who forbid marriage, and
calls them not only impostors but demons [ <540401>
1
Timothy 4:1,3]? that the prohibition of marriage is a doctrine of demons
is then a prophecy, a sacred oracle of the Holy Spirit, and by it the Spirit
willed from the beginning to arm the church against dangers?

But they think they have neatly escaped when they twist
this sentence to Montanus, the Tatianists, the Encratites, and other ancient
heretics. They (the papists say) alone condemned matrimony; we do not damn
it at all, but debar from it only the ecclesiastical order, for which we
deem it unfitting.F438 As if this prophecy,
even though at first fulfilled in those heretics, did not apply also to
the papists; or as if this childish quibble were worth listening to, to
deny that they prohibit marriage because they do not prohibit it to all!
For it is as if a tyrant should contend that a law is not unjust when only
a part of a city is oppressed with its injustice!

24. MARRIAGE ENJOINED AND SPIRITUALLY INTERPRETED

They object that the priest should be distinguished from
the people by some mark. As if the Lord had not also foreseen in what ornaments
priests ought to excel! Thus they blame the apostle for the disturbed order
and disfigured comeliness of the church, who, when he sketched the perfect
pattern of the good bishop, dared put marriage among the other endowments
which he required in him. I know how they interpret this [ <540302>
1
Timothy 3:2; <560106> Titus 1:6], namely,
that a man who had a second wife must not be chosen.F439
And
I admit that this is no new interpretation, but from its context it is
plainly false.F440 For Paul immediately prescribes
what sort the wives of bishops and deacons need to be [ <540311>
1
Timothy 3:11].

Paul lists marriage among the virtues of the bishop; the
papists teach that it is an intolerable fault in the church order. And,
please God, not content with this general blame, they call it in their
canons uncleanness and pollution of the flesh.F441
Let
every man ponder from what workshop these things have come! Christ deems
marriage worthy of such honor that he wills it to be an image of his sacred
union with the church [ <490523>
Ephesians
5:23-24, 32]. What more splendid commendation could be spoken of the dignity
of marriage? With what shamelessness will that be called unclean or defiled
in which a likeness of Christ’s spiritual grace shines forth!

25. REFUTATION OF AN OPPOSING SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT

Now, although their prohibition so clearly conflicts with
God’s Word, they still find something to defend it in Scripture. The Levitical
priests, whenever their turn to minister came, had to sleep apart from
their wives in order to be pure and unspotted to handle sacred things [cf.
<092105>
1 Samuel 21:5 ff.]. Therefore, it would be very unseemly for our
sacred rites—which are much nobler and occur daily—to be administered by
married men. As if the role of the gospel ministry and the Levitical priesthood
were one and the same! For the Levitical priests as antitypes F442
represented Christ, who, mediator of God and men [ <540205>
1 Timothy 2:5], by his perfect purity was to reconcile the Father
to us. But though sinners cannot in every respect express the pattern of
his holiness, in order to make at least a sketch of it, they were ordered
to purify themselves beyond the custom of men when they approached the
sanctuary. For then they properly represented Christ, because they appeared
at the Tabernacle (the image of the heavenly judgment seat) as peacemakers
to reconcile the people to God. Because the pastors of the church do not
play this part today, it is pointless to compare them with the priests.
Therefore, the apostle boldly proclaims, without exception, that marriage
is honorable among all men, but fornicators and adulterers are left to
God’s judgment [ <581304>
Hebrews 13:4].
And the apostles themselves prove by their example that marriage is not
unworthy of the holiness of ally office, however excellent.F443
For
Paul is witness that they not only kept their wives but took them about
with them [ <460905> 1 Corinthians 9:5].

26. THE ANCIENT CHURCH AND CELIBACY

Then, it was an astonishing shamelessness: on their part
to peddle this ornament of chastity as something necessary. This they did
to the deep disgrace of the ancient church, which, while abounding in an
excellent knowledge of God, still more excelled in holiness. For if they
do not heed the apostles (they are accustomed sometimes to treat them with
outright contempt), please, then, what will they do with all the ancient
fathers, who certainly not only tolerated marriage in the order of bishops
but also approved it?F444 Did they then promote
a foul profanation of sacred things, inasmuch as the Lord’s sacraments
were not duly celebrated among them? Indeed, there was agitation in the
Council of Nicaea to require celibacy. For there are always superstitious
little fellows who dream up something new to win admiration for themselves.
But what was decreed? Paphnutius’ opinion was accepted, who declared that
it was chastity for a man to cohabit with his own wife.F445
Therefore,
marriage remained sacred among them; and it caused them no shame, nor was
it thought to cast any spot upon the ministry.

27. LATE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF CELIBACY

Then those times followed when the too superstitious admiration
of celibacy became prevalent. After this came those frequent and unrestrained
rhapsodic praises of virginity, so that scarcely any other virtue was commonly
believed to compare with it. And although marriage was not condemned as
unclean, still its dignity was so weakened and its holiness so obscured
that a man who did not refrain from it seemed not to aspire to perfection
with enough strength of purpose. Hence those canons by which first, men
who had come to the rank of priests were forbidden to contract marriage;
next, it was forbidden for any but celibates or those who, along with their
wives, had renounced the marriage bed to be taken into that order. I admit
that these regulations, because they seemed to bring reverence to the priesthood,
were also received with great approbation in antiquity. But if my adversaries
claim antiquity against me, my first answer is that this freedom of bishops
to be married existed both under the apostles and for some centuries afterward
[ <540302> 1 Timothy 3:2]. The apostles
themselves, and those pastors of prime authority who followed in their
place, used this freedom without any difficulty. We ought to hold the example
of the earlier church of greater importance than to judge as unlawful or
unseemly what then was accepted with praise and was customary. Secondly,
that age which with immoderate affection for virginity began to discriminate
against marriage did not impose the law of celibacy upon priests as a thing
necessary of itself, but because a celibate was preferred to a married
man. And lastly, I answer that they did not require it in such a way that
by necessity and force they compelled celibacy of those who were not fitted
to keep continence. For while they punished fornications with very severe
laws, in the case of those who contracted marriage they decreed only that
they give up their office.F446

28. ABUSES UNDER THE RULE OF CELIBACY

Therefore, whenever the defenders of this new tyranny
seek the pretext of antiquity in defense of their celibacy, we shall have
to require of them that they restore that ancient chastity in their priests;
that they remove adulterers and fornicators; that they do not allow those
to whom they forbid an honorable and modest use of the marriage bed to
run unpunished into every sort of lusts; that they restore that now abandoned
discipline by which all wantonness may be restrained; and that they free
the church from this most shameful wickedness with which it has so long
been defaced. When they concede this, then we shall have to admonish them
once more not to claim as obligatory that which, being free, depends on
its usefulness to the church.

Yet I do not say this because I believe that under any
condition room ought to be given for these canons which cast the fetters
of celibacy over the ecclesiastical order; but I do so in order that the
wiser ones may understand with what effrontery our foes, in the name of
antiquity, defame holy wedlock in priests.

As far as the fathers whose writings remain are concerned,
when they speak from their own opinion, none, bexcept Jerome,F447
has
so spitefully impugned the honorableness of marriage. We shall be content
with Chrysostom’s tribute alone, because, since he was a particular admirer
of virginity, he cannot be regarded as more profuse than the others in
commendation of marriage. But here are his words: "The first degree of
chastity is sincere virginity; the second, faithful marriage. Therefore,
the second sort of virginity is the chaste love of matrimony."F448